Month January 2018

I’ve been taking pics of the groupings of objects in front of shrines.

Here’s what they may mean:

A candle or an oil lamp: the light of wisdom illuminating the darkness of ignoranceIncense: the fragrant scent of moralityFlowers: the aspiration to achieve the body of the Buddha, or, alternately, a Zen verse expresses the desire for the mind’s “flowers” to “bloom in the springtime of enlightenment”Food, water, drink: represents the nectar of Dharma and the wish to achieve itScarves: offering friendship

I’m presuming the pigments are an extension of the forehead markings. These pics are from Hindu shrines, so they may mean this but that’s only a guess. (I need a day with a guide, but Googling has its benefits, like you can drink beer and smoke ciggies and do it)

I first came across the Hindu goddess Kali in my Rough Guide India eBook. Here’s how she’s described here:

Kali is the Hindu goddess (or Devi) of death, time, and doomsday and is often associated with sexuality and violence but is also considered a strong mother-figure and symbolic of motherly-love.

A traditional image

Whoa! Ganesha, go hide!

From the above site:Kali’s most common pose in paintings is in her most fearsome guise as the slayer of demons, where she stands or dances with one foot on a collapsed Shiva and holds a severed head. She wears a skirt of severed human arms, a necklace of decapitated heads, and earrings of dead children, and she often has a terrifying expression with a lolling tongue which drips blood.

We’ve seen her only twice, I don’t think she’s common, but not sure

On the way to the Nepal border we went through a long pine forest. The track with the shrine marked

On a hill beside the road, this

At the gate, the monkey god, Hanuman

And then Ganesha (below post). Then Shiva and Parvati

…

Then this

Kali

Tonque sticking out, bloody hands, taunting, defiant

And standing on Shiva

The next day we went to the extraordinary Mahakai Temple, which is on a Darjeeling hill, centre here

The walk up here was high value

Garish and beautiful structures

…

The monkeys are fed, of course

To this

Kali

The woman above was doing laps of the shrine with incense, nodding in with each passing. She walked clockwise, right to left, in the same way as you spin a prayer wheel